The system aims to offer narrower spreads and lower-cost trading at greater speed. Trading will be anonymous and securities will be available on one system, enabling traders to offset positions in different securities more easily than if they were accessing the markets on separate systems.

Nasdaq accounts for 12% of trading in NYSE-listed stocks and 40% of Amex-listed stocks. However, Bob Greifeld, president and chief executive of Nasdaq, said the move to the new system should increase this share.

The change is part of Greifeld’s continuing effort to improve the market’s quality of execution using advanced trading technology. Nasdaq was slow to take advantage of this, which allowed electronic communications networks (ECNs) to offer execution in Nasdaq-listed stocks. They providede better quality than Nasdaq’s older systems.

Nasdaq started to change that last year with the launch of SuperMontage, a super-ECN. It will underpin the trading of securities listed on Amex and NYSE as well as Nasdaq; other systems will also be used in Nasdaq’s Market Centre.

The system has been tested with 27 NYSE and Amex-listed securities and is capable of trading all 6,679 listed stocks for the US capital markets. It was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US regulator, this month.

Greifeld said the system’s launch marked the evolution of Nasdaq’s systems. He said the ability to trade all securities on one platform means customers may enter orders, quotes, and trade reports in one place, creating increased efficiencies for market participants.

With many firms moving towards sectoring their desks, this system gives traders the ease of using one screen to trade both Nasdaq and NYSE securities with the benefit of numerous functionality features, while keeping costs down.”